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Jul 12th 2010
Too many topics to come up with a good post name
So…it’s been a very busy, very crazy time in the Pauley household. The Max’s Nana (my hubby’s mom) and his cousin Cameron (yes, the one that Cameron in the book is named after!) came to visit for a week. We went ALL over, from dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the John Hancock building to Lake Michigan (via beach in Racine, WI) to Medieval Times in Schaumburg, IL. It was a good time, but I’m totally worn out now! But I’d better pull it together soon since my older sister and her son are coming to visit on the 20th! (Then we’ve got more visits after that, with my in-Laws and my younger sister & her hubby). Very, very busy summer.
In the current book news (working title: Cat Girl Saves the Day), I’m still working on it. *sigh* I wanted it to be done by the end of June but that didn’t happen. It’s so very, very, very close though. I’ve got about 1/2 a chapter to the end and then some additions/corrections I need to make in the earlier chapters. So it *is* almost there. Almost. I’m hoping this week, if I can fit in writing between working my way through the mountain of laundry that seems to plague all the authors I know and doctor appointments and…
An Author Visit!
I’ll be at Glendale Heights at the Glenside Public Library tomorrow at 7 PM where I’ll be talking about writing and will even have VISUAL AIDS. No, I’m not bringing any funny bats. But I will have marked up copies of the first book so you can see what a manuscript looks like once your editor is done with it (Oh the red! Oh my eyes!) and other cool stuff. I’ll also be giving away tattoos and bookmarks and stuff. And who knows…if enough people are there, I’ll give away an STBM vase too… So, if you live in Northern Illinois, please do come by!
Where was I?
Oh yes…the craziness that’s my life. There’s also some really BIG BIG news that I can’t talk about yet. Life-changing stuff. Driving-me-crazy-stuff.
But I can’t talk about any of that.
But I CAN talk about where I am with picking winners of the Launch contest. I know, it’s been a month since the contest ended. I should’ve announced winners already. Besides going to ALA and having guests, I have no real excuse other than that it has been INCREDIBLY hard narrowing it down. First I went through all the entries and narrowed it down to a group of finalists. Then I sent those out to my guest judges. Then I tabulated the results. I marked my favorites (as well as the one Cameron gave a vote to while he was visiting). Then I noticed that two of the finalists were pretty close to each other, so I emailed them asking if, should they happen to win, a joint event would be feasible/possible. I just heard back from them (literally while I was typing this up) that they could do a joint event, so I’m going to be posting a FINAL poll for the Grand Prize so YOU can help me pick. Because I can’t narrow it down any farther. I just can’t. You guys are too awesome.
I am also going to award some additional runners-up prizes. Namely some Skype visits with me + swag packs (bookmarks, etc.). Honestly, I wish I could visit every single one of you! But I can’t afford it. Heck, after all this vacation-ing, I can’t afford anything! 
Anyway, stay tuned for more on that soon (as in the next half hour).
Jun 30th 2010
ALA 2010 Recap
As always, I had a blast at ALA. It also always coincides with my anniversary, so the whole family comes. This was The Max’s third ALA and the librarians, as always, love him. We arrived last Thursday a bit later than planned (had to sit on the runway in Chicago for almost 2 hours because of weather between Chicago and Washington D.C.) and just wandered a bit. We saw the White House and ate at Siroc Restaurant. They were very nice and the food was quite good. Call it “interesting Italian-ish” fare. And when I asked for extra cherries for The Max? They gave him a little bowl of them.
Flying Max
On Friday, we went to the National Air and Space Museum. The Max saw rockets and spaceships and airplanes. It was definitely a hit. It was kind of amazing to see one of Amelia Earhart’s planes as well as The Spirit of St. Louis in the same building with a lunar module. Very cool. Oh, and who can forget the Wright brother’s airplane? The real one? That’s a piece of history. Actually, all of it was. We enjoyed it as much as Max did. We also walked around the National Mall (you know, the big patch of land around the museums and the Washington Monument and all that) and wandered around the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that happened to be going on. The Max especially liked the music.
We met up with my editor & other Wizards of the Coast staff for dinner at Chef Geoff’s. It was good and the start of my gaining at least 3 pounds while we were in D.C. The Max was happy; he had popcorn as part of his dinner.
Nina Hess & The Max w/ tattoos!
On Saturday, I got all ready (i.e. put on makeup and all that jazz) and we headed over to the convention center for ALA. I had a signing at 1 and we wandered the floor a bit. I snapped pictures of Avi, Jerry Pinkney, Laurie Halse Anderson, and actually finally met Ellen Hopkins in person (nice dress, Ellen!). Also saw Ralph Nader, which was like a bit of random “Whoa, is that who I think it is?”-ness. I caught a quick glimpse of John Green as he was whisking by, but didn’t get a chance to say hello. Oh, and I met Sarah Wingfield, a sales rep from Random House who has been awesome to me and my books.
The signing was fun. I really love meeting people who love books and that’s the truly great thing about ALA. Everyone there is a book person. Without exception. Max loves it too. He thinks all of the booths are just for him, I think. He even passed out bookmarks to people (which was too adorable — him holding out a bookmark
And The Max is....out.
to librarians and going “Mommy’s book”). Then he literally passed out. He was also really excited to get a Max and Ruby book signed by Rosemary Wells.
Saturday’s staff dinner was at West End Bistro, another great meal. We dressed Max in his little vest and bow tie. He was a hit all the way around
Sunday we started out walking around since my signing wasn’t until 3 PM. We went to the Natural History museum and The Max saw dinosaurs, which he’d been talking about since we started mentioning museums. He really loved the dinosaurs and went running from exhibit to exhibit. He also loved the sculpture garden outside of the National Archive, where you can stick your feet in the water. We all did, actually. It was so incredibly HOT that it was a welcome respite.
I have no caption for this...
ALA Sunday was just as fun. Did run into fellow Chicago-area author James Kennedy and The Max got to meet one of the lions from Between the Lions.
Dinner that night was at Marakesh, a Moroccan-y place with belly dancers and food you eat with your hands. I was so proud of The Max; he tried a bunch of different foods and he loved the show. Just ask him — he’ll belly dance for you now.
Monday was our anniversary and we spent the day walking the city and seeing monuments (Lincoln Monument, the Washington Monument, etc.) and going to the American History museum, which was really cool. Got to see Julia’s Child’s kitchen and Kermit the frog and…well, too many things to list. We definitely have to go back to Washington D.C. when The Max is older AND not in the middle of summer. Way too hot. We’re heat wimps now.
We were originally planning (and had a reservation for) The Inn at Little Washington for our anniversary dinner, but we hadn’t realized how far it was from D.C. It’s over 60 miles and with the rush hour traffic, there was no way to do it. It would have cost us $400 to hire a car to get us out there and back. So we wound up going to Teatro Goldoni instead. It was good (and much, much closer).
Tony and The Max
And that was pretty much it. Tuesday was just a travel day. It was a great trip, though I wish I’d had a chance to hobnob more with my fellow authors. I always feel like I’m somehow missing out on the biggest parties or something. Or I hear about them too late to go. Still, it was an awesome time and we all had a lot of fun. AND we met a ton of librarians. Librarians Rock. And I’m totally not trying to suck up here. I think if I weren’t an author, librarian would be high up on my list of possible other things to be. You know, especially if “independently wealthy and fabulous” weren’t available (which, sadly, it never seems to be).
Oh, and if you want to check out some more of the pictures…here you go (Facebook album)! That’s actually not all of them, since I didn’t figure the whole world would want to see all the dinosaur and rocket photos that The Max kept telling me to take.
I can’t wait for our next trip. Where should we go next? Oh yeah…I still need to pick the Launch contest grand prize winner…
Hmmmmmmmm.
So, where will that next trip be….?
Jun 22nd 2010
Blue Hair!
Okay, how did I manage to make a post yesterday talking about my new blue hair but not actually showing a picture of it? Probably the distraction of the sausage foot.
So, here you go…blue hair!
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- Not all that obvious from the front…
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- …but look at the back!
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- Side view!
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- Another front view
It proved very popular with the young girls at our neighborhood barbecue over the weekend. And my niece Rachael wants to do it now (but my sister, her mom, won’t let her). I guess I’d be one of “those” moms, since I’d let my kid color their hair any color they wanted. I just draw the line at stuff that’s permanent. So I’m putting you on notice now, little Max — no forked tongues or really crazy piercings, but feel free to go purple if that floats your boat.
Honestly, I wish I’d done crazy hair when I was a teenager or at least in my 20s. This is my first certifiable “crazy” hair (and it’s really not *that* crazy). I suppose I’m at a point in my life where it really doesn’t bother me at all what other people think. In high school, I still definitely cared.
Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff you wish you could go back in time and tell your earlier self about. That, and start exercising early.
Jun 21st 2010
My ALA Curse & Launch contest update
So, every time ALA rolls around I get all excited. This is my third one, but I’m still all giddy like a schoolgirl (and just what does that mean, anyway? I don’t remember being particularly giddy when I was in school).
However.
Every time I go to ALA, some disfiguring nastiness occurs. The first one, a sty in my eye. I’d never even had one before in my entire life, but here was my lower eyelid, all red and puffy and swollen. I had the plague eye. And, you know, the fact that I was still carrying a bunch of after-baby fat around (The Max was only about 3 or 4 months old at that point).
Last year, I had a very lovely pimple that was the size of New Jersey. And then The Max got bit by a spider or something in our hotel room — right by his eye — and it swelled up and turned red. He looked like a boxer who’d lost a fight. Try walking around with a one year old that looks like that and see what kind of looks you get.
This year? Well, this year I have blue hair (which is on purpose and rather lovely, if I do say so myself). But I also have a collection of red welts on my arms and legs from a deer fly attack a WEEK AND A HALF AGO plus, at the moment, a foot swollen to 3 times it’s normal size because a hornet bit me yesterday. I haz sausage foot. I’m not sure if I can even wear any shoes other than flip flops right now.
It’s my ALA curse.
So, if you go, and you see some poor little short half-Asian author person limping around and looking like a plague victim, that would be me.
In other news, I’ve narrowed down the Launch Contest entries to some finalists and have some volunteer judges going through those to determine the winners. I should be announcing them shortly! Can’t wait to meet you, whoever you are, O Grand Prize winner!
Jun 9th 2010
Only a couple more days…
I can hardly believe it, but Still Sucks to Be Me has almost been out an entire month already! That also means that the EPIC Launch contest is almost over, so if you haven’t entered yet, be sure you do before the end of the day on June 11th!
One of the strange things about being a writer is that whatever book you’re promoting is, honestly, one of the farthest things from your mind. To me, Still Sucks was wrapped up a year ago. I’m working on an entirely different book with entirely different characters. Every time I think about Mina and the gang, it’s like having to pull back from the current trials and tribulations of the characters I’m making life miserable for right now.
Don’t feel too bad for Nat (my main character) or her friends (Oscar and Melly) though. I’m also at that stage in the book where the characters are making *me* miserable. It happens every time. I’m getting close to the end and things aren’t exactly lining up yet. Pieces are coming together, but some things are falling apart. It always makes me think of that bit of The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats:
Turning and turning in a widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
Though I’m sure that’s not what he was talking about when he wrote that. At any rate, I’m slogging through. I have to keep reminding myself that I like this book. I like these characters. And it’s okay. It’s okay if what I’m writing write now is utter dreck. That’s what revisions are for.
My goal is still to finish the whole thing up by the end of June and hopefully before ALA (if I’m lucky). I’m at around 44,000 words right now. Wish me luck!
Jun 8th 2010
The Real Cameron Speaks!
Here’s Cameron’s answers so far (he hasn’t read the book yet, so he’s going to answer later on some of them):
* What are your favorite hobbies?
I like to play xbox live, bmx, play basketball and football.
* What’s your favorite book?
my favorite book is hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Good choice!)
* Who’s your favorite band?
my favorite band is the devil wears prada
* How old are you?
I’m 11 il be 12 in september
* Do you like Mina?
I like Mina. She is an interesting person.
Jun 7th 2010
Pictures from Bethany!
(And no, not the Bethany from the first book, who I wouldn’t want to get pictures from, but from Bethany, a fan of the books who I LOVE getting email from!). Bethany actually had a copy of Still Sucks to Be Me but then she won one from YABC and is donating her old copy to her friend. Yay, friends! She sent me some pictures in honor of receiving the book (plus swag). How awesome is this?? And I love the glasses too!
Jun 7th 2010
Fan art from Cassandra!
I so love getting all this cool stuff from readers!! I don’t know who the actor is that she picked for George (I am SO out of touch), but he certainly is cute! What do you think? The girl she picked for Mina is actually a popular pick (I’ve had a lot of other people suggest that actress too). She’s very cute. I just always wonder if she’d be able to kick butt? But, you know, you gotta watch out for the cute ones! They’ll surprise you!
Here’s some fan art from Cassandra:
Sucks To Be Me
Still Sucks To Be Me
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